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A group of liberty-minded House Republicans made waves in late January when they announced that they were leaving the Republican Study Committee to form a new invitation-only caucus that will focus exclusively on presenting and advancing an agenda grounded in limited government and the Constitution.

There are many big issues on the minds of senators as they consider the nomination of Loretta Lynch to serve as the next attorney general. But among the most concerning is that she has made it very clear that she'll continue the astonishing pattern of overreach to support warrantless spying, and she'll do it under the guise of narratives that have long been debunked.

The Constitution makes explicitly clear that Congress is delegated as the lawmaking branch of the federal government. But, over time, lawmakers have abdicated this responsibility by passing laws that delegate the regulatory process to unelected, largely unaccountable bureaucrats in the executive branch. This has led to presidents enacting their agendas through executive fiat, especially in times of divided government.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is one of the best in the upper chamber when it comes to budget and spending issues, earning high marks in 2013 and 2014 on FreedomWorks' congressional scorecard. He's also expanding the reach of the Republican Party with his youthfulness and pop culture savvy.

The White House is offering more details about President Barack Obama's FY 2016 budget proposal in advance of its formal release on Monday. Politico is reporting that the administration will call for an end to the sequester -- across-the-board cuts to the rate of spending increases enacted in 2011.

The Congressional Budget Office has released its annual budget outlook for the next decade, showing that the budget deficit will continue to fall in the current fiscal year, as well as next year, before gradually beginning to rise steadily again, thereafter. The media mostly talking about this aspect of the report. The Associated Press, for example, ran with the headline: "CBO: Budget deficit to shrink to lowest level since Obama took office."

One of the ways the Obama administration managed to get ObamaCare through Congress was by keeping the cost of the law under $1 trillion. This was accomplished through various budget gimmicks and backloading costs in years at the end of the original budget estimates. These deceptive tactics are how the administration managed to get a score from the Congressional Budget Office purporting that ObamaCare would reduce the deficit by $124 billion.

The ObamaCare bailout provision is leading some health insurance companies to low-ball premiums to attract consumers during the open enrollment period, but they could be setting up enrollees for sharp cost spikes once the transitional section of the law expires after 2016.

Being tasked with a response to the State of the Union address isn't easy. The message, usually given by a fresh face, is carefully crafted to fluff up a party's priorities for the coming months, as well as offer Americans a distinction between their agenda and what the president offered them earlier in the evening.